A seismic shift is under way. According to author and futurist, Jeremy Rifkin (The Third Industrial Revolution, The Zero Marginal Cost Society), we are in the final phases of the fossil fuel era. In his new book, The Green New Deal, Rifkin argues that we are entering a zero carbon economy. Much as coal and steam powered the First Industrial Revolution, and oil and telephony powered the Second Industrial Revolution, so clean energy and digital technologies are now converging toward what he describes as the Third Industrial Revolution.
Rifkin would know something about this. He is a principal architect of the European Union’s long-term economic vision, Smart Europe, and a key advisor to China's Third Industrial Revolution vision. In Europe, the European Commission is calling for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. And in China, Beijing-led policies have given China a commanding lead in clean technologies through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Against the backdrop of rising temperatures, collapsing ecosystems, and the threat of species extinction, Rifkin argues that key sectors of the global economy have already begun decoupling from fossil fuels.
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